Qantas is putting an increasingly strong emphasis on dining as part of the lounge experience, upgrading the standard buffet to include live cooking stations and regional cuisines.

Qantas looks for local cuisine

In its new Hong Kong lounge, which opens on April 3, travellers will be served Cantonese-style char siu barbecued pork, dumplings and dim sum from yum cha trolleys.

The Qantas Los Angeles Business Lounge, which is also due to open later next month at the freshly-facelifted Tom Bradley International Terminal, will similarly embrace California cuisine channelled through “LA street food”.

“We're looking at Mexican, Korean, Italian,” explains Roger Barstow, one of the Rockpool group's consulting chefs working with Qantas on upgrading the dining across its international lounges.

“There'll probably be a little bit of Spice Temple in there, but it's more Rockpool Bar & Grill and any Rosetta items which are more suited to the West Coast.”

Star's LA powerplay

The nearby Star Alliance lounge at LAX name-checks the city's Asian influence with a small noodle nook.

But what I love most about this lounge is that almost anywhere you sit there are AC powerpoints and USB sockets within easy reach for charging up your laptop, tablet or smartphone.

These power panels aren't always obvious at first glance – sometimes they're neatly hidden behind a pop-out recess. But just glance around and you'll find them built into tables, lounges, benchtops in the dining room, and even in waterproof housings on the lounge's novel outdoor terrace.

The lounge also has a dedicated reading room where you can escape the bustle of the business lounge.

But what if you turned the concept on its head and declared the entire lounge should be a quiet zone?

The quiet life

That's the approach of the SkyTeam airline alliance, which in the middle of this year opens a new lounge at Sydney Airport's T1 international terminal.

Like its siblings in London and Istanbul, the SkyTeam Sydney lounge will swap those TV screens scattered around the lounge for a separate TV room.

“When I'm in a lounge, I've just come from a long day and I have a long flight ahead, I just want to relax and not be bothered by news or sports,” SkyTeam's lounge guru Bert Goren tells High Flyer. “So we have will have a separate TV area for people who want that.”

However, the lounge will encourage socialising and a bit of friendly noise at a dedicated wine bar.

The question is, just how much do these things matter to business travellers who are used to jetting around every other week – for whom flying is not the start of a holiday, but part of their commute?

Back to basics

Last week I was chatting with a colleague who takes a domestic business class flight out of Sydney every two weeks, on average.

He's the consumate frequent flyer: a master of maximising his points, knows the best seats on any aircraft, and has hundreds of tricks of the frequent flyer trade tucked under his belt.

He has recently shifted the bulk of his domestic travel from Qantas to Virgin Australia.

I quizzed him on how the airline compare and was surprised that he didn't rate the Qantas lounge as a stronger factor in the Flying Kangaroo's favour.

By my reckoning the Qantas Business Lounges – which he's entitled to use as a business class traveller and Platinum-grade frequent flyer – best the Virgin Australia lounges, especially in their selection of food.

12 comments

Just give me a "business" area where it's quiet and I can do some work. I don't want a disco. Would be prepared to pay additional for a lounge-within-a-lounge that is set up for business travellers (as distinct from FIFO workers and families with kids).

Commenter

Geoff

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 26, 2014, 8:23AM

I find when you travel a lot for work you often don't get time to exercise. It's sit in the office, sit in the cab to the airport, sit in the lounge (& eat), sit on the plane (& eat some more) and then get home and flake out on the couch! I'd like to see a lounge provide a few bits of exercise equipment or have a couple of yoga classes, just something that helps clear the mind and encourage some movement.

Commenter

officegirrrl

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

March 26, 2014, 9:03AM

Qantas lounges are rubbish. The food is terrible and the portions are so tiny, as Woody Allen might say. Best ever business: Cathay at HK and BA at JFK. Worst: Qantas/BA at Heathrow and Sydney. The only advantages of Business Lounge are 1) away from badly behaved bogan kids and parents (except for Qantas' Cashed Up Bogan lounge in Sydney) and 2) can leave your luggage securely and not have to keep an eye on it every second. Also a mid flight shower at Changi doesn't go astray if you have the time.

Commenter

StBob

Date and time

March 26, 2014, 10:15AM

huh? the food in the business and first QF international lounges is not too bad at all, i was in the first lounge last week and stuffed myself, the salt and pepper calamari is excellent, the domestic lounges are basic and my main gripe with them is the lounge in Melbourne, seriously how can there be that many FF or club members there at any one time, i have never seen it less than capacity and i am there every week

you think QF lounges are bad, head to the US and try one of their airlines, AA's admirals club 2 drink vouchers at the door...... really basic

Commenter

the fat man

Date and time

March 26, 2014, 1:18PM

There should be pretty girls available at these exclusive lounges...it's a long wait at times and some entertainment is necessary. Capitalism & Democracy is best*

*suckers....

Commenter

Lord BlackStone

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 26, 2014, 11:08AM

I did 72 flights last year and approx 70% were outside of Australia. A bit rich saying QF Lounges are rubbish. The QF First Lounge is excellent, although I would admit in the last 12 months it has reached reasonable capacity, plus the management of the lounge has changed. Virgin has John Borghetti at the helm now and the impact is obvious - of course let's not get into the QF decision of 2008. Australian domestic lounges are great compared to North America (now that's a wake up call). This said they no longer have a 'business' clientele. FIFO has killed that. Internationally SE Asia still leads the pack, North America & Europe are still way behind. What am I looking for? like Geoff said earlier, space, a quiet glass and clean shower.

Commenter

Bevan McBevan

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 26, 2014, 11:49AM

What I like about the lounges - is generally away from screaming babies and feral children. The ability to use free wfi and not having to watch my luggage every minute.But these lounges come into their own when your flight is cancelled or even bigger emergenices. I was in LAX when flights started departing after 9/11 and the United Staff in the business lounge went above and beyond the call of duty even though they were very stressed out due to what had happened to the United planes and due to their workload. Nothing was too much trouble, especially since Ansett died on 9/12 and my round the world ticket (it was on a codeshare with Ansett/United/Lufthansa had to be reorganised.

Commenter

Peter

Date and time

March 26, 2014, 11:50AM

Perhaps I am old fashioned but in years gone by I was fortunate enough to enjoy the facilities of earlier lounges, that in my opinion truly epitomised the feeling of a first or business class lounge. Cathay Pacific's former first class lounge in the old Kai Tak airport was an absolute haven. Other lounges of the era were just as welcoming, deep comfy chairs, and private TV nooks, dedicated (quiet) reading areas, with a cozy feel and appropriate lighting. While our 21st century offerings, are modern and try to be designed for the modern traveller, most of them are far to open plan for a start. I find them, stark, bright (too well lit in some cases), and they seemingly appear to be trying to look like the cover of a Vogue Living magazine and less like a place to actually relax. Point in case is the awful open and canteen like feel of the food area at the Qantas Lounge in Perth International. Here’s hoping that one day in the not too distant future, that an Airport Lounge will actually be a place to lounge around in. While I am at it, yes the clientele has gone to pot, even in Asia, I am sick and tired of seeing people putting the feet on the table! If people don't know how to behave, or cant behave, them they should not be let in and Lounges should abide by some type of decent dress code.

Commenter

Anthony A

Location

Asia

Date and time

March 26, 2014, 12:28PM

It's a pity that the Star Alliance airlines at Melbourne can't get their act together. The recently revamped Singapore Airlines lounge is very poor, as are many SQ lounges I've found. Food choice very limited and often left out for a period of time. Supposedly made by Cafe Vue, not a good advertisement for them as I wouldn't be hurrying there any time soon.

Not a patch on the Emirates lounges

Commenter

TheHawk

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

March 26, 2014, 12:34PM

Lounges vary airport to airport. The Star Alliance Gold Class lounge in Narita airport is surprisingly in poor shape. Seats are really lumpy and worn (the leather is wearing off them, you get bits and pieces stuck to your clothes), the furniture needs to be updated. Food is ok. Internet access requires several screens to get connected, but once in it works well. The new Star Allilance Gold lounge in LAX is much better than the old one - but food is limited (especially important if you're in transit from other cities in the US to your international flight). The abundance of power points is great for charging my devices before the long flight.

I want quiet and space to relax - some lounges are terrible due to the general lack of seats - I avoid flying from SFO to overseas as I'm told the Star Alliance lounge is really cramped. I also don't want announcements every 2 minutes on flight departures (Narita's Star Allilance lounge is annoying with this) - just put up screens around the lounge.